Betting Line:

For those of you living in the southeastern United States that don’t have the Sunday Ticket, it’s another Sunday off to the local sports bar if you want to catch the Pats; for the rest of the country, you will be able to see the Patriots from the comfort of your living room couch.

Unbeaten Carolina is just a 3½ point favorite against a struggling Saints defense in New Orleans; Miami is favored by 6½ (granted, it is against the Ravens); Minnesota is a 1½ point home underdog against Seattle; and Dallas was listed as a three-point road favorite at Washington – though to be fair, this was prior to Tony Romo’s injury on Thanksgiving Day. It is also interesting to note that there are more favorites playing on the road (nine) than home favorites (just six).

It is incredible the number of statistical categories that these two teams both rank in the top ten, top five, or best overall in – especially when you compare the Patriot offense versus the Bronco defense.

While Sunday once again leaves NFL fans with a dearth of games between two quality teams, at least there are several competitive matchups involving a pair of clubs fighting for a playoff berth. Leading up to Sunday night’s highly anticipated game between the Patriots and Broncos, the only afternoon game between a pair of teams with winning records is Minnesota at Atlanta. However, with the exception of ESPN’s odious foistering of Baltimore at Cleveland Monday night, almost all of the of the other games should be competitive and entertaining; the Steelers-Seahawks, Bills-Chiefs and Bucs-Colts are among those that could be compelling games well worth watching.

As is what seems to be the case every year, a Thanksgiving Day game involving the Detroit Lions is seemingly in place to simply make the following games look that much better

The Patriots host the 5-4 Buffalo Bills in a battle between the longtime division rivals on Monday night. A victory by the Pats all but mathematically clinches the AFC East for New England; it also would keep the Pats in the number one seed in the AFC, setting up a crucial game next week at 7-2 Denver. Buffalo currently owns the sixth seed in the AFC playoff picture, but needs a win to stay ahead of six other teams that are no more than one win behind them.

For the second straight week a game involving the Patriots shapes up to be one of, if not the most compelling matchup of the week. As an unintended side effect of the NFL’s quest for parity, for the second week in a row there are just three games between two teams with winning records. Following Thursday’s dud between the two-win Titans and three-win Jaguars, not a single one of the eight early games features a pair of winning teams, and overall for the week eleven of the fourteen games do not match up two winning teams. Only the last three games consist of two teams with records over .500: Green Bay at Minnesota in the late afternoon game on FOX, Cincinnati at Arizona Sunday night, and Buffalo at New England on Monday night. That game will also be a time where New England fans can “welcome” ESPN to Gillette Stadium and let the self-proclaimed world wide leader know exactly how they feel about their “integrity” and “unbiased” reporting.

While Rex Ryan is proving he can dish out but can’t take it in anticipation for Monday night’s game between the Buffalo Bills and New England Patriots, Vegas has published their early advanced ‘look ahead’ lines for NFL week 12. On Thursday the Westgate in Las Vegas listed the Pats as 5½ point road favorites for next Sunday night’s game against the Broncos at Mile High in Denver. This week the Broncos are in Chicago to face the 4-5 Bears.

For the second straight week a game involving the Patriots shapes up to be one of, if not the most compelling matchup of the week. This is one of only three week 11 games (Packers-Vikings, Bengals-Cardinals) between two teams with winning records. It will also be a time where New England fans can “welcome” ESPN to Gillette Stadium and let them know how they feel about their integrity and unbiased reporting

As a by-product of the league’s quest for parity, NFL week ten sadly has just one game between two teams with winning records: the New England Patriots at New York Giants in a late afternoon tilt on Sunday. Here is a look at all of the week ten games.

The Giants defense ranks 30th or worse in total yardage, passing yardage, third downs converted, first downs, yards per play, yards per drive, passes completed, sacks and sack yardage.

Week Ten NFL Thursday Night Football has an interesting has an interesting AFC East matchup, as Rex Ryan returns to Exit 16W for the first time since he was canned last December, after losing eight straight games en route to a 4-12 record.

The good news for out of town Pats fans is that New England Patriots’ game will receive far greater broadcast distribution in week ten than it did in week nine versus Washington. The bad news is that even though it is a late game, is back on CBS and the network has this week’s doubleheader, the game still won’t get virtually universal distribution – like Denver at Indianapolis did last week, or Seattle at Dallas did in week eight, or Cowboys at Giants did in week seven. CBS has assigned their top broadcast team of Jim Nantz, Phil Simms and Tracy Wolfson to cover the game between New England and New York. The Patriots-Giants game will be broadcast pretty throughout most all of the eastern United States, while Kansas City at Denver will be aired throughout all of the continental western states.

The New England Patriots have opened as 6½-point road favorites at the New York Giants – and by Friday that line had moved up to seven points. The Pats-Gints game looms to be one of the most compelling in week ten; it is one of only three games (Vikings at Raiders, Arizona at Seattle) that does not include at least one team that at this point in time has a losing record.

To me though the biggest concern is not one of the wide receivers, but tight end Jordan Reed. Reed is too quick for any linebacker to cover him, and at 6’2″ 237 it is a very difficult task for a corner to bring him down. The Patriots have had issues with opposing tight ends for several years now, and Reed could cause the Pats fits. In 4½ games this year – Reed has missed time due to concussions – the tight end has 350 yards receiving with three touchdowns and 22 first downs, catching 35 of the 47 passes (74%) thrown his way. Reed leads Washington in first downs and is tied for the lead in receiving yards and touchdowns, despite the time he has missed. To me the primary challenge is to stop Reed – much the way the Pats did against Tony Gonzalez a few years ago – and dare Cousins to beat the Patriots deep.